Bye bye traffic! Flying cars will be here soon
Ever heard of on-demand flying transportation service? Don’t worry. Flying car technology is still very much in its infancy. But it’s a thing. And it’ll be here before you can slam that car horn
In the not too distant past, flying cars seemed implausible, the stuff of Jetsons cartoons or futuristic sci-fi films. But now, modern technology is set to make highspeed aerial commutes a reality, one that may eventually transform the landscape of cities such as Dubai. Every single day, millions of commuters around the world are faced with the irritating prospect of being stuck in traffic — say, from Sharjah to Dubai and back, from Gurgaon to central Delhi, or from New Jersey to New York City. In some cities — such as Los Angeles or Sydney, for example — studies have shown that residents waste seven entire weeks of their life commuting, two weeks of which are spent stuck in idle traffic. In some cities (megacities like Mumbai or Mexico City come to mind) the problem is far worse. Aside from causing stress and issues such as traffic rage-related elevated blood pressure, every hour spent in traffic is essentially wasted — one could be working productively or enjoying their free time.
Flying cars and taxis will eventually change that. For example, Uber Elevate — which held a summit this week in Dallas — hopes to create an on-demand flying transportation service, which the company says will drastically improve urban mobility and shorten commutes by using a fleet of small, electronic vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, ordered with the press of a button. Dubai is one of two partner cities in this programme. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), for its part, has gotten in on the act as well, and in February unveiled a flying car that is expected to take to the skies for the first time this summer.
But how, exactly, would this process work for those of us here in Dubai?
According to Uber, it has been proposed that cities should establish a network of ‘vertiports,’ which could be anything from the roofs of parking garages and existing helipads to plots of unused land scattered around a city. If one was travelling from Deira to Dubai Marina, for example, one could use an app to order his or her flying taxi to a vertiport near the Creek, and — a short time later — land on one atop Marina Mall, and repeat the process in reverse in the afternoon. Even if one had to commute “the last mile” between the vertiport and home or office, they’d still be at work earlier, and home sooner.
Additionally, unlike cars and public transport systems like buses — which transport people from point A to point B along a limited number of routes – a flying car is able to buzz around town independent of any set path, meaning that a commuter could be flown around any congested areas, like the entry to Dubai from Sharjah. Importantly, Uber and other companies involved in researching aerial mass transit systems believe that flying cars will eventually be an affordable option for the working masses, perhaps even cheaper than owning a car.
“Normally, people think of flying as an expensive and infrequent form of travel, but that is largely due to the low production volume manufacturing of today’s aircraft,” Uber noted in a 2016 report on the future of on-demand urban air transportation. “Even though small aircraft and helicopters are of similar size, weight, and complexity to a car, they cost about 20 times more.”
However, if flying cars are quiet, fast, clean and efficient, Uber believes that there is a “path” to highvolume manufacturing, with “at least thousands” of specific models being built each year. This, of course, means that the price of a flying car service will decrease significantly over time.
“The economics of manufacturing VTOLs will become more akin to automobiles than aircraft,” the Uber report adds, noting that ridesharing and positive feedback will drive the price down further. The aircraft themselves are perhaps the least problematic part of the equation. Over a dozen companies are currently working on compatible VTOL models, a few of which have already had successful test flights. The VTOLs will be significantly quieter and more environmentally friendly than a helicopter, the closest comparable aircraft in existence today. They’ll also be safer, as they won’t rely on any one single part to remain airborne, and — eventually — will likely be automated, reducing the risk of pilot error.
Flying car technology is still very much in its infancy. Various factors, such as safety certification, battery technology, air traffic control systems and vertiport networks, will need to be worked out before we are all flying to work or out to dinner and a movie. But some of the brightest minds in the tech-world are working on this, and it now seems almost a certainty that we — particularly those of us in Dubai — will one day soon take flight.
Time to buckle up!